Please wear your seatbelts!

Of the many things I do to drive my family crazy, buckling seat belts used to one of them. Oh, make no mistake, I'm still obsessive about it. But it's accepted now. There was a time, when buckling up wasn't as must-do-this as it is today, and even then I was cookoo over using the harnesses.

When I first moved to New York, cabbies would allow their back-seat belts to get lodged snuggle between the seat and the back, rending them useless as a fish with a bicycle. I would open the door, and if I couldn't de-wedge the seatbelt from the crevice, I would not get in.

My family would think me nuts because I'd do this even when we'd find the only cab in a gawd-forsaken cab-less part of town late at night.

But no matter. Safety trumps. (Oh, you should see me at parties when someone wants to light candles at the dinner table!)

I thought about my seatbelt fetish today after that deadly crash involving a truck and a cab. A 65-year-old woman on the sidewalk was run over and killed. Today is her birthday. But inside the cab, the driver and two passengers are in critical condition.

The investigation continues but it is hard to imagine they were wearing their seatbelts, judging from the pictures we've seen of the accident. We'll have the latest on their conditions, tonight at 11.

And in the meantime, I'm beggin' ya? WEAR YOUR SEATBELT! Please?

Also at 11, a warning from cops about a serial robbery spree at jewelry stores in 3 boroughs. The armed suspects ? getting in and then hopping over the counter.

We'll have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast (will some areas see the season's first snowflakes in the morning?), and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.